Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is an action-adventure, third-person shooter game. The game is the first installment in the Uncharted series. It was developed exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in 2007. Plot Nathan "Nate" Drake recovers the coffin of Elizabethan explorer, Sir Francis Drake, from the ocean floor. Nate claims to be a descendant of Sir Francis and has inherited a ring with the coordinates of the expedition inscribed on it. The expedition is funded by journalist Elena Fisher, who is there to record the events for a documentary. When they open the coffin, however, they find out that it is empty, except for a diary written by Sir Francis, showing that Sir Francis had faked his death. Nate had suspected this from the before heading out to the ocean. A band of pirates who have been tracking Nate suddenly appear and destroy their boat, but the pair are rescued by Nate's partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan. After returning to shore, Nate and Sully study the diary and uncover information that points to the location of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold, in the Amazon. Fearing that Elena's publishing the documentary would attract rivals and other treasure hunters quickly, they decide to ditch Elena at the dock and travel to the Amazon on their own. In the ruins, they find the ruins of an ancient South American civilization, along with clues that El Dorado is in fact a large gold statue, as opposed to a city of gold. It is also revealed that the Spaniards had taken the statue already. Following the tracks the Spaniards left behind, Nate and Sully discover a long-abandoned German U-boat stuck in the Amazon river containing its dead crew, Spanish gold coins with an unknown mint stamp, and a missing page from Sir Francis Drake's diary that points to a southern tropic island. Before they can leave the Amazon, Nate and Sully are found by Gabriel Roman, a treasure hunter whom Sully owns money to. Led by Atoq Navarro, Roman's lieutenant and an archaeologist with knowledge of the statue, Roman decides he wants what Nate found in the U-boat. Nate refuses to help Roman, who then shoots Sully in the chest. As Nate struggles with Navarro, the U-boat explodes from a torpedo Nate accidentally armed earlier while trying to get out of the U-boat. Elena arrives, furious at Nate for ditching her at the dock, and rescues him for Roman's mercenaries. Elena and Nate then fly off to the tropic island to locate El Dorado. As their plane approaches the island, it is shot down and the two become separated when they have to evacuate the plane. Nate works his way to a fort, where he spots Elena's parachute, but is still unable to find her. As he continues his search for her, he comes upon a message written by Sir Francis, leading him to one of the fort's towers. Upon arriving there, he finds Elena's location, only to be captured by the pirates himself. Eddy Raja, a rival of Nate's, demands that Nate assist him in finding the treasure, but Nate manages to escape with the help of Elena. The two work their way through a long-abandoned port city and discover, where they find a log book in its custom house and discover that El Dorado was moved further inland. While recording footage on her camera, she records the supposedly dead Sully working with Roman and Navarro heading north toward a monastery. The pair soon decide to follow the helicopter that brought Sully, Roman, and Navarro to the monastery. They rescue Sully, who reveals he survived Roman's shot by having Sir Francis' diary in front of it, and decided to play along to fool his captors. They discover a series of maze-like passages below the monastery. In these tunnels, Nate overhears an argument between Roman, Navarro, and Eddy, who has also been hired by Roman to aid in the capture of Nate and in the security of the island. Roman doubts Eddy's abilities to do his job further and ignores his superstitious claim that something cursed on the island is killing his men. Roman dismisses Eddy and his crew, angering Eddy, who draws his gun, but is stopped by Navarro. Traveling through more of the underground tunnels, Nate and Elena find a passage leading to an empty treasure vault in which they find Sir Francis Drake, who appears to have died on the island in a vain effort searching for the treasure. Saddened by the fate of Sir Francis, Nate leaves his ring behind on Drake's body. Before they move on, they encounter Eddy running for his life, chased by mutated humans possessing incredible speed and strength. Nate and Eddy work together briefly to fight off the creatures, but Eddy is later dragged into a hole along a Decendant, supposedly killed. Nate and Elena escape to an abandoned German submarine base, but in order to move on Nate has to venture out to the generator room to restore the power. During his exploration, he discovers that the Germans had sought the statue during World War II but they, like the Spaniards before them, learned that the statue was cursed and became mutated; Nate realizes the creatures attacking them are the mutated descendants of the Spaniards. Sir Francis, knowing the statue's true power, was actually trying to keep it on the island, before being killed by the mutants himself. Nate attempts to return to Elena, but finds her captured by Roman and Navarro. As Nate follows them, he reunites with Sully outside the monastery. Fighting through Roman's forces, Nate and Sully are captured at gunpoint and taken to Roman, who had located El Dorado. Navarro urges Roman to open the statue, but as soon as he does Roman inhales the dust from the rotting mummy within and begins to mutate. The transformed Roman charges at Navarro, but is killed. Planning all along to steal the statue and sell the mutagen as a weapon, Navarro has the statue lifted out by a helicopter as his mercenaries are attacked by the mutants. Nate manages to jump onto the net the statue is in just before the helicopter has left. As Elena struggles vigorously inside the helicopter, the pilot is inadvertently killed, sending the helicopter and Nate to crash land onto Roman's freighter. A final showdown breaks out between Nate and Navarro and his mercenaries, with Nate prevailing over Navarro in a fistfight, knocking him unconscious. As Nate goes to the crashed helicopter and tends to the injured Elena lying inside, Navarro regains consciousness and prepares to kill them both with his shotgun. Elena warns Nate, who pushes the helicopter over. Navarro's foot is tangled up in the rope that ties El Dorado to the helicopter and the helicopter drags both Navarro and El Dorado into the ocean. Elena returns the ring that Nate left behind earlier and the two lean in to kiss, but are interrupted by Sully, who has escaped the island on a small speedboat, taking several boxes of gold bars with him. Gameplay Uncharted: Drake's Fortune uses a mix of shooting and platforming elements in its core gameplay. During the shootouts, Nate can take cover behind walls and either aim and take his shot or blindfire, hoping to hit his target without getting out of cover. When an enemy is close by, Nate can also use a melee combo to effectively disarm and kill the enemy. However, Nate is still open to shots and can die during a fistfight. The platforming elements combine an overall use of acrobatics and simple maneuvers. Nate can shimmy along edges, swing from ropes, and take many leaps of faith over large pits. There are also "on-the-rail" sections, where Nate is on a mounted machine gun on the back of a jeep and must use it to stop his pursuers. Other sections include a jet ski, in which Nate is driving and Elena is shooting. However, players control both parts as Nate can drive, he must brake to allow Elena to fire either the grenade launcher or her pistol. There are also sixty-one collectibles to be found, including the rare "Strange Relic", which award "Medal Points". Nate can receive Medal Points by finding treasures or doing certain things, such as killing an amount of enemies while hanging from a ledge. Reception Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was well-received by game critics. Prior to its release, it was expected to be a commercial success and garnered praise from the media. Game Informer complimented the visuals and dialogue between the characters, Nate and Elena, calling them stunning and entertaining respectively. They further added that the production values appeared high, citing the level of detail and musical score. PlayStation Magazine echoed similar statements about the visuals and compared them to that of Crysis, a game well-known for fantastic, realistic visuals. The overall presentation of the game received unanimous praise from critics, who recognized the game's high production values, describing them as "top-notch", "incredible" or comparing them to those found in Hollywood. When combined with the overall style of the game, this led many reviewers to compare Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to summer blockbuster films, with the action and theme of the game drawing comparisons to the "Indiana Jones" film series. As part of the presentation, the game's story and atmosphere were also received well. The depth of the characters was praised, each having "their own tone". The voice acting was also received well, as the cast "nails its characterizations"; overall, the voice acting was described as a "big-star performance", "superb" and "stellar". The technical achievements in creating this presentation were also lauded. The graphics and visuals were a big part of this, including appreciation of the "lush" jungle environments, with lighting effects greatly adding to them. The game's water effects were also appreciated. Overall, many reviewers commented that, at the time, it was one of the best-looking PlayStation 3 games available. Further to the graphical aspects, both facial animation and the animation of characters, such as Nate's "fluid" animations as he performs platforming sections were noted, although the wilder animations of enemies reacting to being shot were over-animated "to perhaps a laughable degree". Category:Games released on the PlayStation 3 Category:Games released in 2007 Category:Games that are rated T Category:Games by Naughty Dog